Blue Boy

Blue Boy was also a character in an episode of Dragnet. In this episode, the venerable detectives are after lsd users, as it has just been made illegal. Recently they have been having trouble with a young man who paints his face half blue, half gold and calls him self Blue Boy. As it so happened, he was first picked up by the detectives because he was in a park tripping and decided he was an ostrich, burying his head in the dirt.

Later in the episode, Blue Boy dies--not from LSD like they may have wanted you to think, but from what looks like a pile of speed in multiple color capsules. His friend doesn't notice him dead, because he's listening to Beatnik Jazz and eating paint off the end of his paintbrush. Oh dear.

Those crazy kids; what will they think of next?

The Blue Boy episode of Dragnet was basically about law enforcement and their assimilation of the LSD phenomenon. At the opening of the episode, there is no law against LSD. It is a mysterious substance, the final effects of which really aren't known.

The typical LSD proponent is portrayed by Blue Boy in what is a typical episode of Dragnet propaganda. Officers Friday and Gannon first encounter blue boy with his head in the dirt. His face is painted half blue in wild patterns and he spouts nothing but manic nonsense. The best among the blue boy's lines is uttered in the interrogation room, after they've dragged him back to the LAPD station.

"There I am! I'm not here anymore! I'm over there now! My hair is green and I'm a tree."

Blue Boy makes the typical acid user look like a complete fool.

When he sobers up, they try to get him to stop peddling his "evil" drugs, but he refuses. They can't arrest him, because it's not illegal. By the end of the episode however, it is. They go in search of Blue Boy and find him dead. He's overdosed on capsules of speed or something. His friend, who's sitting there seeming barely alive,(convenient) tells them "He said he just wanted to get higher man, further out." And Friday makes some curt, smart-assed quip like, "He sure did. He got really far out."

So the lesson here is... LSD users will overdose on speed?